IN ENGLISHLast summer was not very good here for japanese indigo (Persicaria tinctoria), it was too cool and cloudy, and although I got good blues from the leaves, the flowering started late in September. I took some flowering stems inside before the frosts in the end of September, but they didn't produce very much seeds. I suspect that flowers were not open enough at that time and they weren't pollinated. Even the seeds I got were small, and now I tried to germinate them. I sowed 15 seed and only 5 germinated in two weeks in room temperature so the germination rate was only 30% which is not good. I will get plants for myself from these seeds and from some from previous year which I have stored in the fridge, but I don't have left over seeds to sell this year.If I get more plants from my seeds in April that I need for myself I can sell them in the spring at the market.From abroad you can buy japanese indigo seeds at least from Germany from Ruhlemanns and from Companion Plants from the US. It is too bad that not bigger seed company doesn't sell japanase indigo seeds here in Finland.

IN ENGLISHNow I have a new pair of mittens ready. I like trees and oaks which we have by our road. I also like old Finnish "ryijy" rugs, there isn't any proper English name for them. I have for a long time wanted to get the same feeling to our mittens as is in older "ryijy" (from 1600 or 1700 century) which have kind of panels on the sides and different patterns in the middle. With mittens there is a problem that I can't have different colors in the sides as in the middle, because I don't want to use more than two colors at a time. Now I'm very pleased how these mittens turned out! The oak pattern is the same as in Autumn Oak mittens, and it is made by my mother.I tried quite a few color combinations before ending up to these, I ripped and knitted again, and also finished three pairs for the market to sell, before I was satisfied with these. I like these very much.The name of these mittens is Oak Valley, and there are seven different colors in the: natural black and three natural browns, and three olive greens dyed with mushroom Tapinella atrotomentosa.There is a kit for these mittens now in my shop.Here are some pictures of oaks (and maples) by our road and small valley, these are my inspiration. Oaks are great trees, they also provide the dyer with acorns, leaves and also bark, and some lichens fall off from the branches when the wind blows hard.
Tässä muutamia kuvia inspiraation lähteenä omasta tammikujastamme (ja vaahtera), pienessä notkossa. Tammet ovat hienoja puita, lisäksi niistä värjäri saa terhoja, lehtiä, kuortakin ja joskus niistä irtoaa tuulella rungossa ja oksilla kasvavia jäkäliä.

IN ENGLISHI have grown now Dyer's Broom (Genista tinctoria) for six years, and they have grown well in a sunny raised bed in sandy soil. Stems don't usually survive the winter in my garden (or if they do, then hares and deer like to eat them), but it doesn't matter as long as the roots survive and the new growth begins in the spring. And anyway I cut them down in the autumn when I dye with them. The best time to dye with them is when it is in full bloom, here that is later in the summer than in more southern countries where you may get two crops from it. Here I have written earlier about dyeing with it.Picture above is from May when the new shoots have started to grow, and below it is flowering in August.Dyer's Broom is easy to grow from seed, because it germinates in warm without any cold stratification like many woody plants. Here is is wise to sow them first in pots and when the seedlings have grown a little transplant them to a raised bed. Here they don't yield much to harvest in the first year but after that they grow bigger every year give plenty of material to dye with. In my garden it doesn't grow as big as I have seen in pictures in more southern countries, but it is still one of my favourite dye plants for yellow and green, also I over dye blue a lot with it to get more brilliant greens than it would give by itself. In Finland you can get seeds from Hyötykasviyhdistys.

Omista pensasväriherneistäni ei riitä myyntiin, mutta kaupassani on nyt ranskalaista kuivattua pensasvärihernettä (myös isommissa erissä), nämä langat on värjätty sillä. Mikäli värjäyksessä käytettävä vesi on hapahkoa, kuten meillä, kuivattujen kasvien liotusliemeen kannattaa lisätä hiukan kidesoodaa nostamaan pH lievästi emäksiseksi (7-8) jotta väriaineet irtoavat niistä paremmin. Olen näissä värjäyksissä käyttänyt 50g kuivattua kasvia/100g lankaa. Haudutan kasveja hiljaisella tulella, en keitä poristen,ja samoin pidän näillä värjätessä myös värjäyslämpötilan n 60-70 asteisena. Ilman puretusta pensasväriherneen väri ei tarttunut nyt lankaan kuin todella hentona keltaisena, mutta aluna-viinikivipuretuksella väristä tulee voimakas keltainen. Mikäli värjäyksen lopussa liemeen lisää vartiksi rautavihtrilliä (1-2g/100g) niin väri taittuu vihreäksi. Ilman alunapuretusta pelkällä raudalla väri jää harmaaksi. Kuvissa vaaleammassa vihreässä on valkoinen pohjaväri ja tummempi on värjätty vaalean harmaalle langalle.IN ENGLISHI don't have enough Dyer's broom in my garden to sell it as a dyestuff, but now I have in my shop dried Dyer's broom from France, and these yarns are dyed with it. If your water is slightly acidic like mine, then it is useful to add some washing soda to the soaking water of dry plants to raise pH to 7-8. If your water is neutral or alkaline this is not necessary. I have used 50grams of dried Dyer's broom to 100grams of yarn. I simmer the plants, not boil, and also when I dye I keep the temperature of the bath in about 60-70°C. This time I didn't get hardly any color to the unmordanted yarn, but with alum and cream of tartar I got bright yellow and by adding a little iron (1-2%) in the end of the dyeing the color shifts to green. Without alum, only with iron the color is grey. The lighter green in the pictures is dyed on white yarn, the darker one is dyed on natural light grey yarn.

IN ENGLISHI was making inventory last week and found one bag of dried Dyer's chamomille (Anthemis tinctoria) flowers. Dyer's chamomille is a short lived perennial plant, but here it is mostly annual, at least in my garden. Perhaps it would demand more dry soil to over winter. I have grown it as annual and sown it early in April and this way it starts to flower in July and flowers through to the end of the summer. If the plants survive the winter then it starts to flower earlier.In recent years I haven't grown Dyer's chamomille, I haven't had enough sunny places to plant it and also I get easier yellows from more perennial plants like goldenrods, dyer's broom or wild tansy and brown knapweed. Dyer's chamomille is a very pretty plant and if you don't need much yellow it is a good plant to grow.The dried flowers I have now were several years old, and I even wondered if they would give yellow anymore. I tried them and got good yellow in spite of the age of the flowers.The dyestuffs in dyer's chamomille are flavonoids like myricetin, quercetin, isorhamnetin, apigenin and very small amounts of luteolin (Böhmer). Yellow color these flowers give is not quite as lightfast as the yellow from plants containing more luteolin, but satisfactory anyway. There are also several other plants belonging to same Anthemis-family, and they all give yellows. Also chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) gives yellow color and it has more luteolin, but it's flowers are quite small and more laborous to collect enough. With plants which have luteolin as their main dye it is important that the dyebath is neutral or slightly alkaline, not acid.I soaked the dried flowers overnight, and then simmered for one hour. The bath gives a very pleasant smell. When the bath was dark brownish yellow, I strained the flowers away, I've had bad experiences with flowers of dyer's chamomille or especially chamomile stuck into yarn, and they were almost impossible to get off! So it is best o be careful at this point. I let the bath cool down, then added alum-cream of tartar mordanted yarn and raised the temperature to near simmer, 80°C. Color from luteolin bearing plants attaches also in lower temperatures but with dyer's chamomille the temperature needs to be high, also it takes some time for the color to attach to the yarn, usually an hour is sufficient. I now used 50g of dried flowers to 100g of yarn, according to my notes I have previously used as little as 30g with good results, but most dye books recommend to use at least the same amount of dry flowers as wool, preferably even twice as much. It never hurts to use too much, you can get deeper color and then also paler shades from after baths. By adding a little (1g/100g wool) iron to the bath in the end of the dye time the color changes to yellowish green.I have now some of these flowers also in my online shop, here. I decided I didn't need all for myself:).

IN ENGLISHI wish everyone Happy New Year with a new look in my ON-LINE SHOP. There are some improvements especially for Finnish customers with easier payment methods, but I hope you all find the new shop better in time when it should be also more friendly with tablets and mobiles. Paying from outside Finland goes through Paypal like before.For me the new year continues the same way as before, knitting mittens and hats in the winter for the market and new mitten patterns for the kits, and selling at the market in the summer, and week-ends in the winter.In a few months it is time to sow japanese indigo again and soon it is then spring. I'm going to sow also more woad this year.I was just thinking that I dye blue most of all, that is why I changed the header in my blog also indigo-blue:) I love blue, it is such an upbeat color, and I need it a lot, many customers like blue yarns and I also need it as a base to greens and purples and violets dyed with other natural dyes. Last autumn I even got brown by accident (I was aiming for dark green) with indigo overdyed with fermented buckthorn bark, but it was a nice brown. I'll have to try to see if I can get it again, it is never sure to get the same colors especially when dyed with two natural dyes, but actually I like it when the end result varies, and I never promise to customers to get the exact same shades. Sometimes I manage it but not often.Last year was too dry for mushrooms so I can't dye much mushroom-blues, but I have some saved dried tooth fungi to dye small amount of yarn with them in the spring (they smell so bad the dyeing needs to be done outside).It is going to be another interesting dye year ahead!

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WHY USE NATURAL DYES

"We can keep the knowledge of their use alive, as well as regaining for ourselves a vital contact with the natural world. The ability to correctly identify the plants needed, to understand their growth stages sufficiently well to be able to obtain the greatest dye, offer both challenge and pleasure."

We sell our yarns, mitten kits, knitted things and my husband's photographs at the market Kauppatori in Helsinki. From mid September until mid May my husband will be at the market only on Saturdays if the weather is good. Occasionally also some other days. This week we will be at the market on Monday September 25th, Wednesday September 27th and Saturday September 30th.